No more horseplay

Speedy Jones is focused on gold in 100 hurdles

It was smooth sailing for Lolo Jones (right) in the first heat of the 100 hurdles, even though she wasn't completely satisfied. (Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images)

BEIJING - Let's set the record straight: Lolo Jones will not race a horse after the Beijing Olympics. For now, the favorite in the women's 100-meter hurdles will stick to her two-legged competition, which concludes tomorrow night.

Talk of a Jones-horse showdown started when she taped a commercial for the Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in Altoona, Iowa. In the ad, she appeared to trash-talk a horse with comments like, "Sure, he's fast, but can he hurdle?" Then, a lawyer representing Jones said a possible race was under discussion. Word traveled fast. Teammates started asking when and where the race would take place. Internet handicappers sized up which surface would favor Jones and which would favor a horse.

"I do not know how that got started besides the fact that I did a commercial for a casino that races horses and they donated money for my family to come over to Beijing," said the 26-year-old Jones. "How that got transformed into I will race a horse, I have no clue. I have a hard enough time with humans with two legs."

Given Jones's rapid rise to the top of the 100-hurdle rankings and her exuberant, up-for-anything personality, the misconstrued horse race scenario was understandable. Track observers are still learning about Jones. While she has consistently finished in the top five of major meets for the last three years and the top three last year, no one noticed until she started winning this season. And once people noticed her combination of talent, good looks, and outgoing charm, it was hard to turn away.

If Jones wins the 100 hurdles in her first Olympics, she likely will become the new darling of the US women's track team and a headlining attraction on the European circuit. She will have come a long way from the disappointment of the 2004 US Olympic trials at which she failed to make the final in the 100 hurdles and considered leaving the sport for financial security and a 9-to-5 job.

"Everyone thinks I'm a new face, that I've come out of nowhere," said Jones. "You know what I say, 'Nobody pays attention to the person who gets third or fifth.' I've always been in the mix. But nobody looks at third place. They always want the winner. Now, all of a sudden I'm winning and everyone's like, 'Where are you coming from?' I'm not coming from anywhere. I'm coming from third place. You just didn't recognize me."

Scholarship-driven

Jones actually comes from a poverty-stricken family in Des Moines where her single mother often worked two jobs to support five children. For Jones, track was not an escape from her family's tough circumstances. It was not a reassuring constant as her mother regularly moved the family in search of better jobs.

In the beginning, track was simply a means to a college education. Jones knew a college degree would help her get out of poverty and avoid the struggles her mother faced. She believed a college athletic scholarship was her only option. To ensure the stability necessary to run and study well, Jones lived with three families so she could stay at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines while her mother continued to move.

"It was step by step trying to get out of poverty," said Jones. "In high school, you're never like, 'I've got to go do this to not be like my mother,' I was taking it step by step. Get an education first and foremost . . . Track wasn't, 'Oh, I'm going to be a professional athlete. Oh, I'm going to be an Olympian.' It was none of that at first. It was, 'I need a scholarship to a school. Any school.' "

NCAA track and field powerhouse Louisiana State came calling, and Jones happily headed down to Baton Rouge. At LSU, she teamed with coach Denis Shaver. Jones was the first to arrive for practice and always asked Shaver for ways to improve, worrying she might lose her scholarship with a bad season. Shaver developed Jones into a top collegiate hurdler, though the 2003 indoor 60-meter hurdle title was her only individual NCAA championship.

More importantly, Shaver persuaded Jones to stay with the sport after the disappointment of the 2004 Olympic trials, to endure the short-term financial uncertainty of a professional athlete with potential but no big wins. A couple of weeks after the trials, Shaver told Jones, "Look, Lolo, it's time to get back on the track. You have this talent." Jones trusted Shaver.

"I don't know why I decided to go for it," said Jones. "I knew it would be hard. I just had a passion to do it. I didn't want to give up on my dream because I lost one time. That's not how you give up on your dream. You keep trying."

Added US women's track team coach Jeanette Bolden: "She's had four years of hunger and desire. If you noticed her races during the indoor season, she was on fire. She took her indoor competition to another level. Her energy and her enthusiasm showed in her winning the world indoors. That just springboarded her to what she did at our Olympic trials and in Europe. She's definitely on the rise."

While indoor titles may not carry as much weight as outdoor championships, the track world took notice when Jones won in Valencia, Spain, this year. The track world paid even more attention to Jones when she posted the fastest time in the world this season (12.45 seconds) at the US trials and recently raced well on the European circuit. Judging from the fact that every broadcast outlet asked to speak with her after she won her first-round heat last night, all eyes remain on Jones.

A smooth start

Following her first Olympic race, Jones was more energized than usual. For anyone who knows the hurdler, that would seem almost impossible. She appears to operate at full speed, full intensity all the time, whether talking about the Iowa State Fair or her latest race. Unlike some athletes who hustle through the media zone after races, it is the one place where Jones takes her time. As she dissects her races, she seems unaffected by Olympic pressure, but she acknowledges that's not the case.

"It was different, and I felt that in the warm-up room, just because this is my first Olympic experience," said Jones. "I had to keep telling myself, 'Look, you've gone in front of crowds 80, 90,000-plus. This is no different, just because it's called the Olympics. Calm down.' My mind was going kind of crazy on me and I had to smack [it] into place real quick.

"There's always a calm before the storm. You get it right before you're about to get in the blocks and your body's like, 'I've done this so many times. Now, let's do it. Let's go.' "

In Beijing, Jones has displayed her usual, smooth style, not disturbing a single hurdle in the first heat. But she saw areas to improve her technique and thought she "got a little bit lazy" going over the barriers. Although she is the favorite, Jones said she will have to put together a "complete race" to compete with the Jamaican hurdlers as well as Spain's Josephine Onyia, Sweden's Susanna Kallur, and US teammate Damu Cherry.

As she broke down the competition, it was hard not to notice Jones was wearing golden Asics spikes. She was asked if the shoes were inspired by men's 100 winner Usain Bolt.

"Actually, I've been wearing my shoes now for almost two years," said Jones. "I've been wearing these shoes when I was getting fifth and sixth place. I remember I had to look at these shoes everyday at practice and I was like, 'Look, Lo, you better start winning because you can't be wearing no gold shoes getting fifth and sixth place.' Maybe he copied me."